Vol. 16, No. 37	July 24, 1997

Archive showcases late senator's career, character

The late Republican Sen. John J. Williams had "a very high, squeaky voice," a thick rural accent, a pit bull-like tendency to lock horns with government bureaucrats and held ideas viewed as radically conservative by many in his moderate home state of Delaware, according to Carol E. Hoffecker, Richards Professor of History at the University of Delaware.

Yet, she added, Sen. Williams was Delaware's most successful vote getter, who managed to hang onto his senate seat for 24 years, from 1947 to 1970, thanks mainly to the public's respect for his unwavering honesty and commitment to ethical government.

"He was a genuine folk hero in Delaware because he became personally identified with integrity in government," explains Hoffecker, who is writing a book about Sen. Williams, based on 150 linear feet full of historical documents in the Special Collections Department.

"One news article of his day quotes a voter as saying that 'a vote against John Williams would be like a vote for dishonesty.' Williams did what he thought was right and he made the devil take the hindmostÐ even when he had to ruffle a few feathers."

Born May 17, 1904, in Bayard, Del., the ninth of 11 children in a farm family, Sen. Williams was constantly crusading against corruption. One of his first investigations targeted the Bureau of Internal Revenue (now the Internal Revenue Service), which was operated in the 1940s by political appointees stationed in all the major U.S. cities. In 1947, Sen. Williams stumbled upon irregularities in the bureau's Wilmington office when an employee there stole Sen. Williams's tax return. With his Delaware colleagues, Sen. Douglass Buck and Rep. Caleb Boggs, Sen. Williams demanded the resignation of employees embezzling taxpayers' money through the Wilmington tax site.

Then, through a tip from a well-placed Delaware constituent, he unearthed additional documentation to show that "it was commonplace for appointees across the country to make deals with taxpayers," Hoffecker said. "Racketeers might pay little or nothing in taxes, and even many legitimate businesses were getting major illegal breaks."

Because of Sen. Williams' efforts to expose such practices, she said, the 200 Treasury Department employees resigned or were fired. Today, she said, the IRS is perceived by most taxpayers as an ethical operation run by civil servants who base decisions on written tax codes.

Sen. Williams' papers also reveal how an "arch conservative" managed to succeed in a moderate state, Hoffecker said. Sen. Williams was "only a lukewarm supporter of civil rights," she notes, and he voted against the Marshall Plan, a successful and largely popular U.S. effort to rebuild the economies of Western Europe. He repeatedly angered the Republican establishment of northern Delaware, and he even battled with the DuPont Co., the state's flagship corporation, which owned the News-Journal at that time.

Nevertheless, Hoffecker pointed out, "People worshipped the man." One of his most celebrated investigations resulted in the ouster of Bobby Baker, secretary to then-Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson in the 1950s. Baker, Hoffecker said, "was a slick character who made a lot of behind-the-scenes deals."

Sen. Williams believed that Baker was helping special interest groups "buy" senate votes. So, Sen. Williams began collecting the evidence that ultimately forced Baker out. Sen. Williams was a successful investigatorÐprimarily because he relied on carefully documented facts, rather than sensational allegations, Hoffecker said. "He didn't go after people because of their ideology, as McCarthy did," she noted. "He did it because they had their hand in the till. He always had documentation to prove any allegation he was making, and he always tried to resolve problems quietly before they were publicized."

Sen. Williams' papers, part of the University's substantial political collections, include his investigative notes, as well as speeches, audio recordings, scrapbooks, letters from constituents, tributes delivered by colleagues, political cartoons, news reports and more.

A gift from the Williams family, the collection took two years to inventory, preserve and catalog, said L. Rebecca Johnson Melvin, associate librarian in charge of the documents. Many of Williams' scrapbooks were copied onto microfilm, while other documents now are housed within acid-free containers, Melvin reports. The entire collection is maintained within a facility where temperature, light and humidity are carefully controlled to protect historical items.

The result of Melvin's work is a "navigational tool" that makes it easy to browse the Williams collectionÐ either by leafing through the paper guide book, or by surfing the World Wide Web [http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/Williams/top/].

On the web, Melvin said, "You can study the scope and content of the collection, and you can actually learn what's available in the storage boxes in our library."

By taking the electronic tour of Sen. Williams' papers, library patrons can hobnob with some of the nation's biggest names in politics, while also learning about the mindset of ordinary citizens of that era.

"One of the fascinating aspects of the collection is that it reveals the voices of people from all over the United States," Melvin said, "because Sen. Williams had a national reputation, and he received letters from so many people." Former presidential candidate Bob Dole, for example, "clearly admired Sen. Williams very much," Hoffecker said.

Sen. Williams' papers enhanced UD's already strong collection of political documents, according to Timothy D. Murray, head of Special Collections. "The Williams collection was a catalyst that made it possible for us to continue gathering items rich in Delaware and U.S. history," he said. Among the library's holdings, for instance, are papers of Sen. J. Allen Frear Jr., along with the Congressional papers of Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper.

--Ginger Pinholster